Days of the Week

31 FRIDAY Viennese composer Franz Schubert was only 31 when he died--and was in the ground nearly half a century before receiving recognition as one of the great "Schu's" of classical music, with most of his compositions premiering well after his death. Tonight's Franz Schubert's 200th Birthday Recital will focus on his early sonatas, performed by Ludmila Lazar, Kenneth Drake, Linn Maxwell Keller, and Mary Scanlan. It's at 7:30 at Roosevelt University's Rudolph Ganz Memorial Hall, 430 S. Michigan. It's free; call 312-341-3780.

This year's Rhino in Winter festival promises 70 performances of 23 works in three venues over a five-week period. Tonight's openers include the Dolphinback Theatre's performance of The Fever, a play by Wallace Shawn about a man with a fever who examines his life and finds that it comes up short. It stars Brad Light and starts at 10 at the Lunar Cabaret, 2827 N. Lincoln. Tickets are $10 or whatever you can afford. The Rhino fest--which runs through March 9 at the Lunar Cabaret, Link's Hall, and Live Bait Theater--will also showcase solo works by Ira Glass, Bryn Magnus, David Isaacson, Gabrielle Kaplan, Judith Greer, Achy Obejas, and Abby Shachner. For more info, check out the sidebar in the Section Two theater listings, or call 773-327-6666, ext. 3.

FEBRUARY

1 SATURDAY There's a scene in the classic miniseries The Thorn Birds in which a clueless Megan gets her first period and thinks she's dying. For some girls, ignorance, shame, and confusion may still mark the arrival of their first period, but today's Coming of Age Workshop and Celebration aims to help mothers and daughters deal with the rite of passage by telling stories, sharing information, and examining psychological changes. The workshop is taught by Tamara Slayton, founder of the Menstrual Health Foundation, and will be held from 10 to 4 at the Unitarian Church of Evanston, 1330 Ridge in Evanston. The $50 fee covers both mother and daughter. Call 773-463-6040 to register.

Boxers or briefs? Leather or lace? Bratwurst or breakfast link? You won't have to ask at Manhole's Weekend of Sin Under Party, where there's a clothing check at the front door, the dress code is undies-only, and several hundred revelers will bounce into the wee hours to the beat of DJ Mark Vallese. Women are welcome, but they too must be up to code. (Those who hang loose down south, by the way, can purchase a new set of drawers at the bar.) It's from 11 tonight to 5 tomorrow morning at the club, 3458 N. Halsted. There's a $5 cover and you must be 21 or older to attend. Call 773-975-9244.

2 SUNDAY Spending a few minutes inside a humid greenhouse is a quick way to clear out stuffed winter sinuses and take a mini vacation from this gray city. Visitors to the annual Azalea Camellia Flower Show can also get free refreshments and listen to music by the Kenwood Academy Concert Choir. The show opens today with a reception from 2 to 5 and runs through February 23 at the Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park. A similar azalea show, minus the food and music, takes place at the same time at the Lincoln Park Conservatory, 2400 N. Stockton. Admission to both shows is free. Call 312-747-1470 for more.

If his fans call him the Weasel, what does that leave for the rest of us? My thesaurus suggests suck-egg, trickster, sneak, or musteline. Whatever you call comedian/actor/irritant Pauly Shore, it'll require a long drive north to check out his latest shtick when he performs in Vernon Hills tonight. Or you can stay at home and wait until spring when his new Fox show Pauly will premiere. Either way, you lose. He performs at 7 and 9:30 at Zanies, 230 Hawthorn Village Commons on Town Line Road in Vernon Hills. Tickets are $20. Call 847-549-6030.

3 MONDAY Forget Wicker Park. In the last ten years the "new" Southport business strip has transformed from a string of vacant storefronts, laundromats, auto-repair joints, and grubby little shops to a neo-Lincoln Park restaurant smorgasbord. Rents and property taxes have gone up accordingly, forcing many low-income residents to leave. Tonight the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs will hold a panel discussion on Chicago's Changing Face: Community Development and Displacement, featuring Alderman Helen Shiller, community activist Teresa Medina, urban planner and architect Susan Campbell, and LR Development president Bruce Abrams. It's at 6:30 at the Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont. It's $5. Call 312-663-0960 for more.

4 TUESDAY The pastel jacket-with-flood-pants ensembles they're wearing on Melrose Place look just fine in TV-land. But will women in Chicago follow Amanda's lead and start wearing puce pantsuits and high-heeled loafers in the boardroom? This morning Saks Fifth Avenue fashion director Nena Ivon discusses Spring Fashion Trends: How Do They Affect Me? The breakfast meeting is sponsored by the North Michigan Avenue Business and Professional Women's Network and starts at 7 in the Mezzanine Dining Room of the Knickerbocker Hotel, 163 E. Walton. It's $22 with reservations, $25 at the door. Call 312-649-3220.

Back before TV shows starring African-Americans were relegated to the UPN ghetto, there were network shows like Julia, Good Times, and A Different World. Not only did the shows center on black characters, they also featured women in starring roles. Julia star Diahann Carroll is among the stars, writers, and producers who put their contributions in context in the documentary Color Adjustment, which examines the relationship between TV and the civil-rights movement. It will be screened today from 12:15 to 1:45 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington. Later at the center, episodes from Julia, Good Times, and A Different World will be shown from 5 to 6:30. Both events are free. Call 312-346-3278.

5 WEDNESDAY Chewing gum, wearing a patch, or going cold turkey isn't always the most effective way to stop smoking. The five-session Smoke Stoppers Staying Stopped program promises to help participants identify new ways to manage stress and develop healthy habits designed to keep them smoke-free for good. The first session is tonight at 6:30 at West Suburban Hospital Medical Center, Erie and Austin in Oak Park. The five-week course is $75, but if you attend all the sessions you'll get a $15 rebate--just enough for a carton of Marlboros. Call 800-974-7362 to register.

6 THURSDAY The Tule Lake Segregation Center was one of ten internment camps where "disloyal" Japanese-Americans were held during World War II. In Scott T. Tsuchitani's 33-minute 1994 film Meeting at Tule Lake, seven former internees discuss their experience and how it affected their lives. It will be shown tonight with two other videos in conjunction with the Chicago Public Library's exhibit, "A More Perfect Union: Japanese-Americans and the U.S. Constitution." The screening's at 5:30 in the video theater in the lower level of the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State. It's free. Call 312-747-4740.

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